1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to integrated management of semiconductor process data, and more particularly, to a method for easily accessing a plurality of data sets generated in one semiconductor fabrication line, and for sharing and easily accessing additional data sets generated in additional semiconductor fabrication lines.
2. Description of the Related Art
With the rapid developments in the semiconductor industry required to achieve high density of semiconductor components per unit area in large scale integration devices, an increasing number of processes are performed on a single semiconductor wafer. As a result, an increasing amount of processing equipment are employed during fabrication of such devices. The sequentially employed equipment tends to be arranged in a group constituting a semiconductor fabrication processing line. A fabrication facility may include several such semiconductor fabrication lines.
A complete semiconductor product is typically fabricated through the following lines. In the first line, pure silicon that is to be the starting material for the semiconductor product is purified, grown and formed into wafers. In the next line, each wafer is processed so that semiconductor devices are integrated onto the surface of the wafer. In the next line, the processed wafer is subject to electrical die sorting (EDS) to determine which chips on the wafer satisfy quality control measures. In the next line, chips formed on the wafer are cut and those that satisfied quality control measures during EDS are assembled into semiconductor packaged products that can be attached to printed circuit boards. In a final line, the assembled products are tested.
Each semiconductor fabrication line has its own control system to control the equipment arranged in the line and the processes performed in the equipment. Through such control systems, the efficiency of the line can be enhanced, and appropriate actions can be taken rapidly to solve operational problems that may occur on the line.
FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a conventional semiconductor process data control system 100 for a fabrication line A. As shown in FIG. 1, the conventional semiconductor fabricating equipment control system 100 includes a plurality of semiconductor fabricating equipment 110, a plurality of equipment servers 120 for operating the semiconductor fabricating equipment 110 to precisely perform certain semiconductor fabricating processes, and host computers 130 and 135 for storing the massive amounts of process data required for specifying the process parameters for the various processes and variations, and for downloading those data into the equipment servers 120.
More particularly, the equipment servers 120 communicate with the corresponding semiconductor fabricating equipment 110 according to a Semiconductor Equipment Communication Standard (SECS) protocol on a RS-232C connection. The host computers 130 and 135 engage in two-way communication with the equipment servers 120 according to the Terminal Connection Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) that is well known. That is, the semiconductor equipment 110, the equipment servers 120, and the host computers 130 and 135 are connected on-line via a network.
Generally, the semiconductor fabricating equipment control system 100 requires at least two host computers which have different functions. One of the computers is a process control host computer 130 and the other is a data storage host computer 135.
A data server 137 is installed in the data storage host computer 135. A plurality of data managing modules, for example software modules, 137a, 137b . . . 137n are included in the data server 137. Each of the data managing modules 137a, 137b . . . 137n treats specific data arranged in a corresponding data set. Typically, the data managing modules 137a, 137b, . . . 137n are application software program modules included in a data server program running on the data storage host computer 135.
A specific data managing module of the data server 137, e.g., 137a, may be an equipment history managing module, another, e.g. 137b, may be a statistical management module, and yet another, e.g. 137n, may be an equipment monitoring module. The equipment history managing module 137a would track the number of hours each equipment is operated or the number of lots processed by each equipment, for the purpose of checking the cleaning and preventative maintenance cycles and generating cleaning period data. Also, the equipment history managing module 137a could manage the histories of the equipment 110 itself. The statistical management module 137b checks statistics generated by combining measured data obtained from wafers after the wafers are processed in the equipment 110. The equipment monitoring module 137n would monitor the equipment operating states such as run state, down state, or idle state, and generate monitored data results, reports or displays.
A plurality of user interface (UI) computers 140a, 140b, . . . 140n and at least one O/I computer 150 are also connected on-line to the network.
The UI computers 140 are connected on-line to the semiconductor equipment control system 100 so that an analyst or an operator can receive some data from the data storage host computer 135. These received data are required for operating the equipment to perform the various fabrication processes and for analyzing causes of operational problems that may occur. The operator or analyst must load and execute a program on the UI computer 140 to retrieve data from the data storage computer 135. For example, when the operator wants to receive equipment history management data from the equipment history managing module 137a through the UI computer 140a, the operator must install and run a suitable program in the UI computer 140a or in another UI computer 140. The suitable program is a program that allows the UI computer 140a to access the equipment history managing module 137a.
For example, when the operator wants to receive statistical data, for example, through the UI computer 140b the operator must install and run a different suitable program in the UI computer 140b or in another UI computer 140. The suitable program is a program that allows the UI computer 140b to access the statistical management module 137b.
By repeatedly installing suitable programs on the UI computers 140, the operator can obtain and analyze wanted data from the plurality of data sets using the corresponding managing modules 137a, 137b . . . 137n included in the data server 137 in the data storage host computer 135.
Besides the UI computers 140, at least one operator interface (O/I) computer 150 is also installed in the semiconductor fabricating equipment control system 100 for fabrication line A. Through the O/I computer 150, the operator checks process data downloaded from the process control host computer 130 and directs processing in the semiconductor fabricating equipment 110 by sending messages to the corresponding equipment server 120.
A semiconductor fabrication line A with the semiconductor fabricating equipment control system 100 is connected on-line to another semiconductor fabrication line B. The semiconductor fabrication lines A and B can therefore share data generated in each.
For example, when a semiconductor fabrication line for processing wafers (line A) is connected on-line to an EDS line (line B) for electrically testing the wafers, wafers processed through line A are passed to line B. In the EDS line, all chips are separated into passed chips and failed chips, and the failed chips are further separated into repairable and non-repairable failed chips.
Furthermore, in this example, when data from the EDS line (line B) are communicated to the UI computer 140 on the wafer processing line (line A), causes of the defects in the preceding wafer processing line can be identified early. As a specific example, data related to the defect causes identified through the EDS line are processed by the defect analyzing module of the data server 137 installed in a host computer 135, of the EDS line. The processed results are then available for further analysis by an analyst or an operator who accesses the host computer 135 of the EDS line through a UI computer 140 of the EDS line. However, the cause of the defect arises in the preceding wafer processing line. Accordingly, the operator or analyst who actually requires the processed result is the operator or analyst involved in the wafer processing line, who is at a UI computer 140 on the wafer processing line. As a result, the operator or analyst involved in the wafer processing line accesses the data storage host computer 135 of the EDS line by installing in the UI computer 140 of the wafer processing line an application program for accessing the processed results from the defect analyzing module on the EDS line. Then the operator or analyst receives the desired data from the defect analyzing module, and then further analyzes and acts on the received data.
However, such a conventional semiconductor fabricating equipment control system has several problems.
First, in order to receive data from the plurality of data sets corresponding to a plurality of data managing modules on one semiconductor fabrication line, several application programs, each corresponding to one of the plurality of data managing modules 137a, 137b, . . . 137n, should be installed in a UI computer 140. As a result, the data from the data managing modules 137a, 137b, . . . 137n cannot undergo an integrated analysis, i.e. can not be analyzed within one application program with fewer commands than modules, and therefore cannot be easily accessed.
In addition, when an operator wants to access data in one semiconductor fabrication line through a UI computer that is part of another semiconductor fabrication line the operator must install on that UI computer a suitable application program matched to that module of the other line, and then execute it, which is cumbersome work.